Following the enactment of the Telecom Act, the department of telecommunications (DoT) is working on a new National Digital Communications Policy (NDCP), which would lay down the growth path and targets to be achieved by the telecom sector in the next five years. A major highlight of the policy is likely to be a set of government incentives for telecom operators for sourcing telecom equipment from domestic manufacturers.
According to officials, the new policy will also revamp the strategy on some of the earlier set targets. Further, the focus will be on different segments, such as emerging technologies, local manufacturing, identification of new spectrum bands, roadmap on 6G, and reducing reliance on imports, etc. Official sources said that the policy will be unveiled by April next year.
Earlier, the government had come out with a digital communications policy for the period 2018-22. Sources said that keeping in mind the rapid pace of technological developments, such policies need to be revamped after a five year period, or else they become outdated. For instance, the 2018-22 policy replaced the National Telecom Policy announced in 2012. The nomenclature was changed from telecom to digital to capture the broader linkages the sector has.
The policy had set targets to provide universal broadband connectivity, increase the digital communications sector’s contribution to GDP to 8% from 6% in 2017, create 4 million jobs, and fiberisation of at least 60% of towers, among other areas, by 2022.
“The department has started the consultations on the shape and form of the new policy. Mostly all the learning from the previous policy and the present trends in the telecom sector will be analysed before coming up with a concrete draft,” an official said.
According to industry executives, in some of the areas such as public Wi-Fi hotspots, tower fiberisation, targets for BharatNet connectivity, and home broadband penetration, the progress has been slow. However, the government’s approach on sectoral reforms, spectrum auctions, research and development, telecom PLI, have largely benefited the industry, analysts said.
The government had set a target for enabling fixed line broadband access to 50% of households by 2022. However, according to a Morgan Stanley report, the same stood at only at 3% as of 2023.
Similarly, tower fiberisation stands at around 44%. This means that out of about 800,000 mobile towers, only 350,000 towers have been fiberised so far. In July 2022, tower fiberisation was at 35%. Under the National Broadband Mission, the government had set a target to achieve 70% tower fiberisation by FY25.
Low tower fiberisation in a way affects the quality of newly launched 5G services as users will not be able to get high speed Internet compared to 4G.
In the 2018 policy, the government had also talked about developing a policy framework for over-the-top (OTT) services. However, the government clarified last year that OTTs fall under the jurisdiction of ministry of electronics and IT, and not DoT. Still, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is currently working on a consultation paper to examine whether OTTs need any further regulation.
